5 children heading to Disney killed in fiery Florida crash

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The church van packed with children was headed south — with just an hour to go to Walt Disney World — when it got caught in a fiery pileup involving two 18-wheelers. Seven people, including five of the youngsters, died in the crash.

On Friday, investigators were trying to determine what triggered the accident the previous afternoon on Interstate 75 near Gainesville.

The Florida Highway Patrol said two vehicles traveling north — a tractor-trailer and a car — smashed into each other and then burst through a metal guardrail, slamming into another semitrailer and the van carrying the children. Diesel fuel leaked and the mass erupted into a fireball.

A fifth car, unable to avoid the chaos, sped through, possibly hitting victims ejected from the vehicles, the highway patrol said. Five of the children, ranging from about 8 to teenagers — from a Pentecostal church in Marksville, Louisiana — and the two truck drivers died. At least eight others were injured, some seriously.

"It is a heartbreaking event," Lt. Patrick Riordan said Friday. He did not identify the church involved, but a member of the Avoyelles House of Mercy told The Gainesville Sun on Friday that her church was stunned.

"It's unbelievable. Everybody is in shock. We lost five of our children," church member Maxine Doughty said. "We had our Last Supper Sunday and the pastor said to live our lives like each day is the last day."

Church officials did not immediately respond to phone calls.

A pregnant woman who was among those injured delivered a baby, according to a message posted on the Facebook page of the Lighthouse United Pentecostal Church Omaha and signed by Kevin V. Cox, the Pentecostal church's Louisiana district superintendent.

Cox said church pastor Eric Descant's wife was among the injured and his granddaughter was among the children killed.

Disney World spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler expressed the theme park's sympathies to the victims' families.

"There are no words to convey the sorrow we feel for those involved," she said. "We extend heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones impacted by this tragic accident."

The accident occurred on a clear day along a straight, flat stretch of I-75 outside Gainesville, the home of the University of Florida. It is a busy stretch of a highway that connects Florida to the rest of the South, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.

Its lanes fill daily with semis carrying produce and goods that barrel among cars, vans and buses filled with tourists headed to and from Orlando, Tampa and southern Florida.

Vinnie DeVita said he was driving south and narrowly escaped the crash — he saw it in the rearview mirror, immediately behind him, according to a report by WKMG .

"If I had stepped on the brake when I heard the noise, undoubtedly, I would have been in that accident," DeVita said. "And then within probably 15 to 20 seconds of it all, it exploded. I mean, just a ball of flames."

Nicole Towarek was traveling northbound with her family when they came across the scene. She told the Gainesville Sun that people were laid out near vehicles as black smoke billowed and emergency workers converged on the area.

"We kept seeing these little explosions and fire," she said. "The heat, it was insane."

The National Transportation Safety Board would normally send a team to help with the investigation, but cannot because of the federal government shutdown. Riordan said Friday that will not impede the highway patrol's efforts, which could take months.

Florida Department of Transportation Troy Roberts said the agency is investigating whether the guardrail should have stopped the northbound crash from crossing the highway or whether the crash was too traumatic.

"The guardrails are there to stop as much as they can, but there are some things they cannot," Roberts said. "Unfortunately, in this case, they did not."

It was the worst accident on I-75 in Alachua County since January 2012, when 11 people died in a chain reaction crash attributed to heavy fog and smoke on the road. Officials were criticized then for not closing the road because of conditions and later installed cameras, sensors and large electronic signs to help prevent similar crashes.

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Frisaro contributed from Miami. Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale also contributed to this report.

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Trump calls shutdown meeting 'productive' while Democrats say he threatened to keep the government closed 'for years'

Trump calls shutdown meeting 'productive' while Democrats say he threatened to keep the government closed 'for years' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

President Donald Trump said Friday he would keep the government shut down for a year or longer if needed to get his way on border security and said he has considered declaring a national emergency to try to secure funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Yes, I have. And I can do it," Trump said in the White House Rose Garden, answering a question from ABC News' Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran. He added he could do so "for the national security of our country."

The president remarks came after an ABC News report that he was seriously considering potential options to circumvent Congress, including declaring a national emergency, to reprogram funds from the Department of Defense and elsewhere to help pay for parts of his desired border wall, according to multiple sources familiar with the ongoing discussions.

(MORE: Trump considering declaring national emergency in an effort to secure wall funding: Sources )

Earlier, Trump had said he had had a "productive" and "very, very good meeting" after talks with top Democrats and other congressional leaders at the White House Friday in an effort to end the partial government shutdown now heading into the third week.

Trump said staff-level talks would continue over the weekend and expressed optimism about a resolution to the standoff over the president's demand that Democrats pass a measure to pay for the wall he wants.

Just minutes earlier, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters outside the White House that Trump told lawmakers in their nearly hour and a half meeting that he is prepared to keep the government closed "for a very long period of time, months or even years."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the meeting "contentious."

Trump, answering a reporter's question about Schumer's remarks, confirmed that he made the threat and agreed that the meeting had been "contentious" despite his earlier upbeat tone.

Schumer also said Trump resisted Democratic pleas to reopen the government as discussions continue.

"The bottom line is very simple. We made a plea to the president once again. Don't hold millions of Americans hundreds of thousands of workers hostage. Open up the government and let's continue the discussions," Schumer said.

"How do you define progress when you have a better understanding of each other's position? When you eliminate some possibilities?" Pelosi said. "If that's a judgment, then yes, we made progress," she said before turning on her heels with Democrats to leave the White House.

Friday's meeting largely mirrored a Situation Room briefing on border security Wednesday with the same eight members of leadership for both parties in the House and Senate. Friday's briefing took place in the Situation Room and was not open to press coverage.

The meeting also came after the House and Senate adjourned Friday morning. The two chambers are set to return next Tuesday, all but assuring that the partial government shutdown will likely continue well into next week.

(MORE: Tell us your shutdown stories)

Fresh off her election as House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi was expected to pressure the president to sign a series of measures House Democrats passed Thursday evening that would open the six federal agencies shuttered in the government shutdown and extend Department of Homeland Security funding through Feb. 8 to make time for negotiations on border security.

(MORE: House votes to end shutdown despite White House veto threat )

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he would not bring the bills for a vote in his chamber without approval from the president, who has only dug in on his demands for more than $5 billion in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The package presented by the House's new Democratic leaders yesterday can only be seen as a time-wasting act of political posturing," McConnell announced on the Senate floor Friday morning.

He went on: "It does not carry the support of the president ... the president would actually veto it. And it cannot earn the support of 60 of my colleagues over here in the Senate. My friends across the aisle understand the ground rules perfectly well."

But there were new signs of cracks in the GOP line as Republican members awaited word from the White House on what exactly the president might sign that would satisfy a sufficient number of Democrats to pass out of the Senate, where a 60-vote threshold is required.

(MORE: During shutdown, janitors, security guards, and other federal contractors receive no back pay)

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, both said they would support measures that would end the partial shutdown and not provide the funding demanded by the president for his border wall.

Reacting to Gardner and Collins' statements, press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Friday the president wouldn't back down.

"Look the president has the support of the American people because they want to feel safe," Sanders said. "The number one duty that the president has and frankly that Congress shares with him is to protect the people in this country."

Both sides made no progress in the Wednesday meeting as President Trump and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen sought to exclusively focus on the need for a wall, which Democrats have described as unnecessary and "immoral" in the broader argument for enhanced border security.

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Stocks surge after blowout jobs report, Powell’s comments

Stocks surged following a report that the U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected in December and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggesting the central bank would be flexible about future monetary policy moves.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 3.43%, or 84.05 points, as of market close, led by advances in technology stocks. Gains in tech shares also contributed to steep advances for the Nasdaq (^IXIC), which climbed 4.26%, or 275.35 points. The industrials-heavy Dow (^DJI) climbed 3.28%, or 746.81 points, on signals of potential progress toward a trade deal between the U.S. and China.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning that the U.S. economy added 312,000 jobs in December, far exceeding expectations of 184,000. Average hourly earnings also rose, increasing 0.4% over last month and 3.2% over last year. The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% in December from 3.7% in November, which was due to an increase in labor force participation.

Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com senior economic analyst, said the U.S. labor market was in a “hiring heat wave” in December.

“There’s a lot to choose from regarding positive developments amid all of the uncertainty, volatility and worries elsewhere in the economy and the broader environment,” he said of the report.

The positive surprise from the latest jobs report bucks a trend among other recent data coming out of other areas of the U.S. economy, many of which have missed expectations. Manufacturing surveys from the New York, Philadelphia, Richmond and Dallas Federal Reserve banks have each disappointed, and both the Institute of Supply Management and IHS Markit’s reports this week pointed to slower expansion in the U.S. manufacturing sector. The Conference Board’s latest reading on consumer confidence sagged to a six-month low, and the housing market has come under pressure from historically high mortgage rates.

On Friday, IHS Markit released its results for U.S. services purchasing managers’ index, which also pointed to softness in service sector business activity. The headline index fell to 54.4 in December from 54.7 in November, indicating expansion at a slower clip for the sector. The pace of new business growth retreated for the third consecutive month, and service providers posted the slowest increase in new orders since October 2017.

The Federal Reserve is back in focus following the blowout jobs report, with investors questioning whether the strength of the labor market will steer policymakers lean toward a more hawkish monetary policy direction to try and stave off inflation. According to Bloomberg data, after the release of the jobs report, Fed funds futures showed that traders now see a lower probability for a rate cut by the end of 2019, with futures contracts showing 11 basis points of Fed cuts for all of 2019 from 16 basis points earlier in the morning. The Federal Reserve raised rates four times in 2018 but signaled fewer rate hikes for 2019 after the Federal Open Market Committee’s last meeting in December.

“From a jobs perspective, I can’t imagine a much better report. From the market’s perspective, this could be really tricky,” said Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy at Academy Securities. “A series of weak data has had the market convinced we get Powell the dove – but if he wants to play hardball with the Powell Put he may feel justified to remain more hawkish than the market would like.”

Powell says Fed is ready to adjust policy

But equities jumped after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled on Friday that the central bank would be willing to adjust its recently instated path of quantitative tightening if it began to cause issues in financial markets. Powell, speaking at the American Economic Association and Allied Social Science Association meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, said the central bank “wouldn’t hesitate” to adjust normalization of its balance sheet. Currently, $50 billion worth of bonds are rolling off the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet every month, which many investors worry could reduce access to liquidity.

Friday’s comments were largely interpreted as a backtracking from some of Powell’s previous statements regarding the balance sheet. Powell previously said in December that the Fed’s runoff of the balance sheet had been smooth, adding, “I don’t see us changing that” unless there were a “sufficient” negative shock to the economy. The comments had sent equities reeling at the time.

Stocks also got a boost Friday morning after China’s commerce ministry said that China and the U.S. will hold vice ministerial level trade talks in Beijing on January 7 and 8, lifting prospects for a resolution to the ongoing trade tensions between two global economic powerhouses.

Cracks in both the U.S. and Chinese economies have recently begun to show as a result of the trade war.

Earlier this week, new data pointed to slowing growth in major sectors of China’s economy, with the Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index pointing to contraction in China’s manufacturing sector for the first time since May 2017. And on Wednesday, Apple (AAPL) – one of the largest public companies in the world and a bellwether of U.S. corporate health – slashed its revenue guidance for the fiscal first quarter of 2019, citing weakness of sales in China as the driving factor for the reduction. Shares of Apple rose 4.27% to $148.26 each as of market close Friday, after declining nearly 10% on Thursday.

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Understanding Neck Pain: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments

Understanding Neck Pain: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments

At any one time, 10 percent of the adult population is usually suffering from neck pain.

This condition usually occurs due to several reasons, including injury, degenerative disc disease, neck strain, and a herniated disc. If you’re experiencing the pain, there are ways you can prevent it from wrecking your life.

Simple changes in your lifestyle may be able to avoid the pain before it starts. It’s also important to know the signs that your pain is severe and it’s time to see a doctor or start therapy.

Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about understanding your neck pain.

How to Get Rid of Neck Pain

Apart from ibuprofen, there’s not really a magic pill that will get rid of your pain. The best way to get rid of your neck pain is to figure out what’s causing it and make some changes.

The most common cause of neck pain is bad posture. There are some things you might be doing every day that can be hurting your posture. Here are some simple changes and fixes to improve your posture and decrease your pain.

Fix Your Posture

Bad posture is one of the most significant factors that cause neck pain, and it’s likely caused by hunching over your computer or phone all day. Here are some other factors that can lead to bad posture and eventually neck pain that you might not even be aware of.

If you carry a heavy bag on one side of your body like a messenger bag, this is terrible for your alignment. This sends the alignment of your back out and causes one side of your body to overcompensate.

Being overweight is another cause of neck pain. Again, you are carrying extra weight to a different area of the body which messes up your posture. Carrying too much weight can pull your muscles in different directions which causes pain in areas like the neck.

If you’re always wearing high heels and tight clothes, this can really lead to bad posture, and this changes your center of gravity which screws up your position.

Be aware of how you walk. Often we walk a certain way because of habit. If you’re walking with slumped shoulders and your head down, you’re messing up your body’s alignment and posture which can lead to pain.

If you have past pain injuries, you might be carrying your body in an unnatural way to deal with that pain. This can lead to a habit of bad posture which is hurting your neck.

Watch Out for Text Neck

Text neck is what happens when you lean over your phone to text, leading to bad posture. Prevent this hunching over by bringing your phone’s screen up to your eye level; this will prevent your neck from tipping forward, but also make sure your screen isn’t too high.

Prevent yourself from placing your phone on a table or near your lap. If you’re using a tablet, make sure to prop it up, so it’s eye level, especially if you’re using it over a long period.

Don’t Slouch While Sitting

Be sure that when you’re sitting in a chair that you’re not slouching and your spine is up straight and fully supported. Your chair’s height is important, you should be able to rest your feet on the floor comfortably, and your knees should be level to your hips.

You want to make sure that your monitor is eye level when you sit up straight. If you sit for an extended period, make sure your walk around regularly. If you experience any pain or discomfort, that’s your body telling you it can’t deal, so make an adjustment.

Try The Soldier Sleeping Position

This exercise can help your pain. Just lie down with your head and neck resting on a pillow. Then push your head backward like you’re making a double chin, while you gently press your head back into the pillow.

Do this for 5 seconds for 10 to 15 times. It might feel like your throat is being blocked, but that’s actually completely normal. This exercise might also help you get better sleep.

Try a Sternocleidomastoid (SCM) Stretch

To do this stretch, sit in a chair or stand up straight and rotate your head to the right as you look up at the ceiling. When you do this, your chin should point up at a 45-degree angle.

Then place your left palm very lightly on the top of your head above your right ear. Next, ever so gently pull your head towards your left shoulder.

While doing this make sure you keep your chin pointing upward and try to hold this for 20 to 30 seconds. Try to do this exercise daily to stop any tension that built up during the day.

When To See A Doctor For Your Neck Pain

Be aware, there are some factors and symptoms of neck pain, which is your body telling you it’s time to see a doctor. Make sure you do your research to find the best neck pain specialist. Here are the symptoms you should not ignore.

Neck or Back Pain That Keeps You Up At Night

If your pain is keeping you up at night or getting worst when you try to sleep, while this is not life-threatening, it might be time to see a doctor.

It’s best to get this checked out, especially if you also have a fever. Back or neck pain and a fever could be a sign that you have an infection like meningitis.

The longer you wait to remedy an infection, the worse your infection can get.

You Have Had Cancer

If you have had cancer and are experiencing first-time neck or back pain, this could be a sign that something is wrong with your colon, rectum or ovary.

The American Cancer Society says that growing cancer can put pressure on organs, nerves or blood vessels that can lead to neck or back pain. Another issue is you might not even feel this pain until your tumor is large and cancer has already spread.

So if you have a history of cancer and are experiencing neck or back pain, see a professional as soon as you can.

You are Over 50

The more we age, the more likely we are to have neck or back pain. If you are over 50 years old and have back pain and have recently gained weight, see your doctor for a plan and treatment.

You Are Having Bowel or Bladder Problems, Or Your Legs Keep Getting Weaker

If you noticed that you are having a hard time controlling your blatter and your legs have gotten weaker, see a doctor as soon as possible. This could be a sign of cauda equina syndrome, which a serious condition that needs emergency back surgery.

You Have Had a Fall, Accident or Other Trauma

If you’ve been injured in a fall or accident and you have neck pain after, see a doctor immediately. Even if you can walk fine, new spine pain could be related to the impact.

Keep in mind if you live with osteoporosis, and have recently fallen, you have a higher chance of spine injury.

Pain Radiates Down One Leg or Arm

If you notice pain, numbness, weakness or electrical sensations down one leg, this is called sciatica. Sciatica symptoms can be from tight muscles due to pressure on a spinal nerve root called radiculopathy.

If you have sciatica, your doctor will find out by trying to elicit your symptoms by testing your dermatomes. Dermatomes are part of your skin that is served by spinal nerve roots. This test can help point out the precise spinal nerve root or roots that are irritated.

Bending or Flexing Your Low Back Makes Your Symptoms Worse

If bending or flexing makes your symptoms worse, you might be experiencing a disc problem, like bulging, herniated or degenerative disc disease. You should see a doctor as soon as possible to figure out what the next steps are.

Spinal Stenosis Symptoms

If you feel cramping, weakness, pain and or tingling in your legs, especially when you walk, you might have spinal stenosis. These symptoms are classified as neurogenic claudication, which is serious. You should see your doctor immediately to find out what’s wrong.

Your Pain Persists

If your pain has lasted for more than three weeks, then it could be chronic, and you should immediately seek medical attention.

Chronic pain can be caused by an injury and follows it’s own set of rules. But if you catch it sooner, you might be able to find treatments to help manage the pain and get on with your normal life. The sooner your pain is assessed, the sooner you can start feeling better with treatment.

Feel Better Today

Now that you know what’s causing your neck pain, start making changes today. These changes can be in the form of fixing your posture, wearing looser clothing, or doing exercises that can help your pain go away.

If your pain doesn’t go away in three weeks or if you have a history of cancer or have recently been in an accident, be sure to seek medical attention immediately. For more articles on health, check out our blog.

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Workday Headaches? 8 Headache Remedies to Use at Your Office

Workday Headaches? 8 Headache Remedies to Use at Your Office

Nothing can ruin your day faster than getting a bad headache at work. Headaches make it difficult to focus and can thus make the workday feel endless.

Anyone who has experienced head pain at the office understands how debilitating even a mild tension headache can be. Fortunately, they are a number of headache remedies that can provide relief and help you make it through the day.

Let’s take a look at a few things you can do to prevent painful headaches at the office.

Workday Headaches? 8 Headache Remedies to Use at Your Office

Offices are full of potential headache triggers. If you’ve been dealing with headaches while at work, read on to learn some great remedies anyone can use.

1. Get Plenty of Sleep

It’s hard to overemphasize the value of getting enough sleep. Unfortunately, in today’s culture, many people have adopted lifestyles that promote poor sleep habits.

Headaches are often your body’s way of telling you it needs a break. When you get busy and resist taking adequate time to rest, your body will suffer and the potential for developing a migraine increases.

Try to make it a priority to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. A tired mind and body will tend to break down, causing aches and pains that proper rest will help eliminate. 

2. Cut Back on Drinking Alcohol

There are few things worse than having to endure a hangover at work. Anyone who has ever experienced a massive headache the morning after a long night of drinking understands how unpleasant this can be.

This is partly due to dehydration. So if you’re going to drink when you know you have to work the next day, be sure to drink plenty of water along with your favorite adult beverage.

Of course, the best way to avoid a hangover at the office is to avoid drinking the night before, or at least stop early enough in the evening to give your body plenty of time to recover.

3. Drink Plenty of Water

Staying hydrated is important even when you haven’t been drinking alcohol. In fact, headaches are one of the primary signs of dehydration.

Get in the habit of drinking plenty of fluids through the day. How much is enough? It’s recommended for adults to consume an average of 11 to 15 cups of water each day.

After all, approximately 60 percent of the human body is made up of water, thus hydration is vital for maintaining good health. 

4. Dim the Office Lights

Many people aren’t aware of how much impact the lighting in your workspace can have on your eyes. This can include bright or flickering overhead lights, and even your computer screen. These light sources cause eye strain, and thus often result in tension headaches or migraines. 

There are a variety of solutions for this problem. Dim the overhead lights if possible. Cover the windows with blackout curtains during the day. Change the bulbs in your overhead lights to daylight-spectrum fluorescent bulbs.

Dim the light on your computer screen, or add an anti-glare screen to your computer.

You’ll be amazed at how much difference simple changes like reducing sources of eye strain can have on the number of headaches you experience in your workspace.

5. Practice Relaxation Techniques 

Because stress is such a significant source of headaches, one of the more effective ways to reduce the occurrences of this sort of discomfort is to learn to relax your body.

It’s important to learn relaxation techniques to use both at home and at the office. Techniques such as meditation, yoga, as well as progressive muscle relaxation exercises, help to clear your mind and bring your attention back to your breathing.

Learning to center yourself is healthy for both mind and body.

Practicing yoga at home helps to leave the stress of the day at the office, while meditation is ideal for reducing tension without leaving your desk. Mediation is quick, simple, and extremely effective.

6. Get an Air Purifier

The quality of the air in your office can greatly impact your health. Dust, dirt and other things too small to see with the naked eye get breathed into your body on a daily basis, which can cause a number of health-related issues. This probably sounds unpleasant, because it is.

The good news is that placing an air purifier in your workspace is an effective way of reducing this issue. Here is a great list of the best affordable air purifiers. 

7. Drink Some Caffeine

Believe it or not, caffeine is actually quite effective at preventing a full-blown headache from developing if you’re able to catch it early enough.

Have some coffee, tea, or something else that contains caffeine. But try not to overdo it because most of us are very aware that caffeine withdraw can often result in a headache all on its own.

8. Try Using a Heating Pad or a Cold Pack

It really all depends on the type of headache you have. Migraines tend to respond best to placing a cold pack on your forehead. Wrap some ice cubes in a towel or use a bag of frozen peas, and hold the cold compress on your head, alternating off and on in 15 minutes increments.

For a tension headache, you’ll want to place a heating pad on the back on your head or on your neck. And for a sinus headache, use a warm cloth or try taking a warm shower to reduce the pain. 

Simple Ways to Reduce Workplace Head Pain

No one wants to suffer from painful migraines at work. Fortunately, you don’t have to. This list of headache remedies provide solutions to the discomfort that so many people experience on a daily basis. 

As more and more people have begun seeking alternatives to pain medications for headaches, they are discovering the benefits of how to get rid of a migraine without using pills. 

So the next time you feel a headache coming on at work, try one of these remedies and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results!

Click here to learn how CBD oil can provide pain relief for carpal tunnel syndrome.

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The pictures of the (Khana Kaba Ki Purani Tasver) which you also want to see | Raaztv

Visit :http://www.Raaztv.comDownload Raaztv Android App On Google Play Store Today, modern technology has tired the camera in everybody's hands and we can see the pictures of new Ka'bab Ka'ib Kaaba, but do you know that the lucky person first made pictures of God. When and when were made? According to the report of Al-'Abbas, the first person in the house of Ka'bah, It was alrightClick here to Subscribe to Raaztv Channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClTS... * Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaazTv * Follow us on Twitter :https://twitter.com/RaazTvnews#KhanaKaba#KhanaKabaOldPictures

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